Good morning! Our advent devotional for today comes to us from Noah Tennant. Noah is a sophomore Business major from Garland, TX. Noah currently holds a couple of special roles in our office, where he serves as both the RSL Intern for this academic year and where he will become the Vice President of Disciples On Campus (our Disciples of Christ campus ministry) at the beginning of the spring semester. Noah takes these leadership roles and his faith very seriously while also embodying a calm and peaceful presence. I hope his words for us today will inspire those same qualities in each of us as we live into the day ahead. Peace and blessings to you…
Philippians 4:6-7
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Peace is one of those feelings that you cannot explain, yet it is one we always seek. We seek that calmness, a sense of relief. The greatest avenue to seek these feelings is through your faith, through the love of our God and the love of Jesus. Like the scripture expressed “prayer and petition” (v. 6) is one way we can reach peace in our hearts, minds and souls.
These holiday times always cause stress. We stress over which gifts to buy, who’s house to celebrate at, and can you get off work. And I know, as a college student, the immense stress of final exams. Often, we look at temporary things to suppress this anxiety when there is a much more permanent option. “So, we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” – 2 Corinthians 4:18. If we give our worries over to God, we have the privilege of having those stresses relinquished. Because only through God can we feel completely at peace.
I have found in times of great anxiety, trusting God is the best way to calm myself. Knowing that God is always with me gives me a sense of peace and serenity that is otherwise unattainable. So, in this time of stress, worry and anxiety, I invite you to open your heart to joy, calmness and peace. Despite peace not being easily explainable, it is attainable. We can attain this sense of calmness over this holiday season through the everlasting love and devotion from our God.
Let us pray.
Strong and loving God, we come to you in our times of stress and anxiety because we know that only You can truly put us at peace. May You seize our feelings of anxiety and fill our hearts with joy, excitement, and love. We pray to see the unseen as we learn to embrace the eternal aspect of Your love. So that today and every day we feel Your peace inside our hearts. As we gear up for the end of one year and the beginning of another, we recognize the continuous love and faith we have for You. Amen.
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